Avaliação da maturação pós-colheita de banana ‘pacovan’ revestidas com soluções filmogênicas.

Abstract

Banana is characterized by being a tasty and nutritious fruit, being an excellent source of carbohydrates, fibers, potassium and vitamins. But post-harvest losses in the production and marketing of fruits and vegetables vary from 25% to 40%, depending on the product and the technology applied. Fruits and vegetables continue to metabolize their own reserves after harvest, thus it is difficult to achieve improvements in the quality of a Product, at most it is possible to maintain its quality for some period of time. Refrigeration is the main technology used to preserve the quality of fruits and vegetables, because prolongs the period of conservation of fruits. In Brazil many methods are used for banana conservation after harvest. One of these methods are edible films, they are defined as a thin layer of edible material, formed directly as a coating, or as preformed and placed coating on the food and the function to be performed by it depends on the food product and mainly the type of deterioration. Since the banana has a short post-harvest life, the objective of the present work was the application of edible coatings based on polysaccharides (cassava starch) and lipids (carnauba wax), being evaluated at different temperatures. Then the following treatments were then applied: control; 1% cassava starch, 0.5% glycerol and 0.01% tween; 3% cassava starch, 0.5% glycerol and 0.01% tween; 5% cassava starch, 0.5% glycerol and 0.01% tween; 5% carnauba wax, 0.5% glycerol and 0.01% tween; 7.5% carnauba wax, 0.5% glycerol and 0.01% tween. Then they were stored at room temperature (32 ± 2 ºC) and BOD without humidity control (10 ± 2 ºC and 16 ± 2 ºC). The coloring evaluation of the bark (color), fresh weight loss, firmness, titratable acidity, pH, soluble solids, total sugars and reducers were performed at days 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 for storage at room temperature And days 0, 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20 for refrigerated storage. According to the results, the fruits coated with cassava starch and carnauba wax presented similar ripening process to the control fruits of the treatment, being the great differential the temperatures used.